The disclosure relates to a rock drilling unit, and particularly to an arrangement for changing drill rods in the rock drilling unit. The rock drilling unit includes a feed beam and a rock drilling machine arranged movably on the feed beam. The rock drilling machine has a shank for connecting drill rods to the drilling axis. Further, at least one retainer device is arranged on the feed beam.
The disclosure further relates to a method of changing drill rods in the rock drilling unit.
In mines and other work sites rock drilling rigs are used for drilling bore holes on rock surfaces. Typically the rock drilling rig includes one or more drilling booms which are provided with drilling units. In many cases drill holes having a greater length than one drill rod need to be drilled. Then two or more drill rods need to be connected to each other in order to form an extension rod. This is called extension rod drilling. Typically several drill rods are stored in a rod magazine which is arranged in the drilling unit. However, the rod magazine is large and heavy, whereby it may hamper the drilling.